As the Dove Flies
by CrypticMoonFang
Summary: Trafficking Awareness Fic. Graphic. Maron becomes the victim of human trafficking.
1. Chapter 1

-Chapter 1-

Maron had been gone for days now. She had been transported illegally to an entirely different country. It really wasn't her fault. She had been minding her own business. She had been passing time by having a casual conversation with Fin, her best friend and partner. Suddenly, and without any warning whatsoever, a total of five people had leapt through her bedroom window and grabbed her. She struggled and fought, and she knew she'd dealt some painful blows, but they overpowered her easily. Fin was an angel; she couldn't help at all. She was too weak to do anything but try to get help. It was truly unfortunate that no one but Maron, who was currently powerless, could hear her.

But when the brunette had been slammed into a wall (of her own accord, as she had managed just once to slip out of the their arms and into a wall) Fin had followed loyally as the strange men carried her away. She soon wished she hadn't. Why?

Because now Maron was the victim of what was known as human trafficking. They were in some kind of filthy, sweaty, dingy building that looked like it belonged in a war zone instead of in a town. Maron was in the process of being forcefully addicted to drugs so she could later be sold to disgusting men who only had one obvious thing on their mind.

Fin waited outside the "door" of Maron's stall. The place was either so unkempt or so low on budget that it had only stalls; the doors to these stall were actually just ripped curtains hanging over the entrance. Fin hated seeing what they were doing to her friend. She was powerless to stop them, but she wished she could help.

A man dressed in black came out with an empty needle in his hand. He traveled down the hallway a bit before putting the empty needle into another man's hand, one who was passing by collecting used needles, and pulled another one from his pocket. He uncapped it and entered a different stall. Almost immediately some other man passed by Maron's stall carrying a very limp body of a teenage girl. Fin had seen it all before. The girl he was carrying had died from overdose. They tried to drug the girls up so much that by the time they were ready to be sold, they didn't know whether it was night or day, what their name was, or if they were standing up or laying down. Fin hoped Maron would resist as long as she could, but every time she went in, Maron's condition seemed to get worse and worse.

Fin went in only for the sake of her friend.

By now, after days of being kept cooped up in some foreign building with dim lighting, Maron had been drugged so many times she didn't even know where she was at anymore. She usually got confused ad when that happened her words came out jumbled up. She started speaking irrationally sometimes, other times she just spoke a bunch of jargon. Sweaty strands of hair hung over her face. She didn't even notice. No matter what the temperature was, she was always sweating. She usually spent her time sitting on the bench that the men forced the girls to sit on while they injected them with some kind of drug-Fin didn't know what it was, only that it killed girls and made their mental stability drop rapidly. Sometimes she stood up but because she had no idea what she was doing, she either fell down or fell back onto the bench. Maron always shook, but Fin wasn't sure if it was from fear or the drug.

"Maron," she whispered. She didn't need to whisper; no one but Maron could hear her. She did it so the brunette could be comforted if comfort was possible.

"It's okay," Maron's faint voice came.

Fin rushed to stand on her lap, as she had been doing ever since Maron was brought here. "Feeling any better today?"

"It's okay."

"No, no. It's not okay. We have to get out of here," she said. It wasn't going to work, though. Maron wasn't the strong-willed girl she used to be. She'd been drugged so many times she couldn't understand what was good or bad anymore. This is where Fin tried her best to keep her friend's mind in check; hopefully someone would come by one day and discover where the two pals had been "hiding". Until then Fin had to keep Maron fighting.

"What is your name?" she asked, already knowing Maron no longer knew her own name.

"It's okay."

See? Nothing she would say ever made sense anymore. She was lucky to remember one phrase, but now...now it was all she could do to repeat it even if she couldn't comprehend what she was saying.

"Maron. Your name is Maron Kusakabe. Say it."

"Yeah."

"Say your name."

"It's okay."

"Maron, count from one to two." Normally this would be a stupid thing to say, but about two or three days ago, she had lost the ability to think properly, so she couldn't count to two. It was especially frustrating for Fin, who was trying her best to help Maron get through this.

"It's okay."

Fin was sick of hearing the same thing over and over; she was so sick of what this drug was making her do. It wasn't fair to either of them. When the angel had left, she hadn't tried to find someone who could hear her, such as another angel. Access may have been an "okay-ish" choice, but he was bad. He'd probably be laughing at their agony right now. She could already hear him and Sinbad, laughing cruelly at Maron for surrendering herself to a liquid, and at Fin for being so weak.

Another drugged up girl came stumbling into Maron's stall. She was newer, and hadn't been here as long. She started muttering things that made more sense than what Maron had been saying in the past five days (she had been here a total of twenty-one days). She was saying something about confusion and where she was at and how long she'd been away from home. Fin felt bad for this girl. It wouldn't take too long before she would loose her mind to the drug, just like Maron and every other girl here had. Some of them were new, but the ones who weren't didn't even try to stand up much anymore. This brave soldier had tried to walk!

Maron, as if trying to speak back, murmured, "Yeah."

The girl who had walked in was pulled out of the stall and could be heard screaming violently as she was dragged back into her own stall. Nobody bothered to try to muffle the scream, they just let her make as much noise as she wanted. They knew it was futile to call out for help; no one was coming. It was like all the poor girls here had been forgotten and left for dead.

Just as the curtain was fluttering back down, Fin saw another corpse, being dragged across the filthy floor unceremoniously by another man dressed in a brown T-shirt and what looked like dark blue jeans.

Fin feared for Maron's life. If she continued to be drugged, she might end up like those dead girls. Her lifeless body could be the next thing to leave this building. One shot. One more injection. One more, and that could be the one that went too far.

Fin wanted to hug Maron, to give her a little friendly kiss on the forehead to tell her it would be okay, that they would get out together, _alive_. But she was afraid that if she did that, she might end up getting some of her sweat in her mouth and become addicted to the drug that intertwined itself with every ounce of her friend's body. It wouldn't help either of the two if Fin, the only one in the building who was still sane, became one of the addicts. And yes, even angels could get addicted to drugs.

Fin flapped her wings a few times, lifting herself into the air and over the curtain, leaving the stall that held her friend captive. It was nearing time for another injection. Tears were brought to eyes as she thought about how quickly Maron was deteriorating. Soon (if she lived, that is) she would be ready to be auctioned off, and if Fin failed to keep up with her when she was transported away, there was an extremely high chance the two would never meet again.

For now it was all Fin could do to pray for Maron. She prayed earnestly, hoping God would hear her desperate pleas, hoping He would sense her distress and torment. The Jun-Tenshi prayed about everything now, relying more on God's strength than ever before. She prayed that help would come soon, that this injection wouldn't kill Maron, that she wouldn't actually be ready to be auctioned soon.

Right when she was done praying, as if on cue, the man with the lethal drug-filled needle walked casually into Maron's stall. The poor girl was too messed up from all the previous injections to know what was going on. She really couldn't escape. She couldn't struggle, scream, or run. All she could do was sit on the cheap wooden bench as the man took her arm and slid the needle skillfully into her skin. Once the shot was empty, he pulled it out and walked away, not caring to put a band-aid over the newest mark on her arm. The place where they always injected the girls at was right where the joints of the arm, in between the upper and lower arm. That place, on Maron at least, was flecked with little red and bruised dots, showing off how many shots she'd had.

The little angel wished Maron had the sense to act dead, to do anything to try to get away from this horrible place. But she had been drugged as soon as she arrived here. Once the drugs started taking effect, the victim's mind became jumbled and the person was left without common sense. The drugs wouldn't let anyone fake.

The Jun-Tenshi sniffled, wiped away her tears, and went back in to support the disoriented brunette. As usual, Maron' head hung down, her arm hanging limp at her side, her hand facing upward and her fingers curled slightly. The day she'd been taken from society, she would have spit at this image. And yet here she was now, just barely clinging to life. She went down fighting at least... But now Maron was more confused than most of the other girls here. Now she was truly endangered. Fin knew her beloved friend only had maybe five to ten more doses left, and then after that she'd either die or be sold.

Because she was an angel, she could call upon another angel for help, but only if the other angel was on Earth. So far, the only one she knew to be on Earth was Access. He was bad. Even still...she had no choice. Fin didn't know which would be worse, Maron being sold off as a sex slave or dying from overdose of illegal drugs. She had no other option but to rely on Access. And if he chose not to help...well...if he chose not to help, then it was all over for Maron.


	2. Chapter 2

-Chapter 2-

Fin used the same pinkish beam she used to activate Maron's Petite Claire to communicate with Access. All she had to do was find him, and he would receive her sending. It didn't take long, because Fin had targeted Japan, knowing that was where Access would most likely be.

_Please, Kami-sama... Please... Save her..._

* * *

><p>Access held his head as it rang with the panicked voice of Fin. Her sending was so strong, but he could tell it was quite some distance from where he was. She was very far away for some reason.<p>

_Access, help us._ Though it wasn't loud and it was short, the emotion she packed into the sending nearly burned his brain out.

He immediately sent something back to her, to calm her down if nothing else. _Where are you, Fin-chan?_

_I don't know. I'm not in Japan anymore. Get Sinbad. Get Miyako and her father. Find out where we're at. Come as soon as you can..._ The sending faded with those instructions. That she had asked for Sinbad's assistance was a sure giveaway that she was in danger.

The reason they hadn't seen Maron around lately, Access mused, was probably because she had gone to find and help Fin. After all, she hadn't said anything about Maron, just herself. Without Maron, demons had been running rampid around the city and Sinbad had been wondering where Jeanne was; he usually would see her sniffing around areas where a demon was thought to be.

No matter, first thing's first, they had to find out where Fin was. It wouldn't be easy since Fin herself didn't know.

* * *

><p>The Jun-Tenshi waited for hours, but didn't receive a sending from Access. Part of her was glad; it took alot of energy to communicate such a long distance. The other part of her was worried sick that he might have refused to help.<p>

Maron mumbled something, but it wasn't comprehensible.

"It's going to be okay, Maron. We'll get out of here soon," Fin said, not knowing if she was lying or not.

The brunette didn't respond; she didn't even seem to take notice of Fin's presence. Fin had slowly gotten used to it. There were times she wondered if Maron would ever recognize her again. During the first week here she had known exactly who she was. Back then Maron had fought the drug vigorously. As time passed it became clear she couldn't resist anymore, and she had grown so disoriented since then that she couldn't even stand up without tripping over her own feet. Now she would fall over and she wouldn't even know she had fallen. Her sense of balance was completely lost. If someone were to pinch her, she wouldn't know she had been pinched. You could hold a gun up to her head and tell her to do something, but she wouldn't know what was going on.

It wasn't just her mind that had changed. Her eyes were so dilated that her eye color couldn't be seen anymore. They were just two big, black, unfocused circles. Her eye whites were bloodshot. Her eyelids had dark rings around them. Her skin was pasty. Her hair was dirty from all the sweating she'd done in the past several days. She was always trying to sweat out the drug that infested her body. Aside from the constant tremors that would wrack her body, she hardly moved now.

* * *

><p>Two days went by, and by now Fin couldn't tell if Maron was getting worse, doing better, or staying the same. She didn't talk as much as she used to, and she used to not talk much. The angel was getting frustrated. This wasn't supposed to happen! Especially not to Maron... Maron used to be strong; she used to see things like this on the news. She always claimed she wasn't that naive. She said she would fight anyone who tried to take her and win. She repeatedly told Fin she wouldn't become one of those disgusting men's puppets. And here she was, one of the puppets she said she would never become.<p>

As a week passed, it became very clear to Fin that Maron was not doing better or staying the same. With each injection she was doing worse. Her mental stability had completely crumbled, and she would be ready to sell any day now. Fin had given up all hope of salvation for her friend. If she didn't die soon she was going to become a sex slave to some guy she didn't know. If she didn't become a sex slave she was going to die soon. It was a lose-lose situation. Access obviously had blown her off; he failed to show up and now it was probably too late. He hadn't gone to get Sinbad or Miyako or Detective Toudaiji. Heck, he probably hadn't even tried to find out where they were.

Fin tried to initiate a conversation; now it was only for the purpose of keeping herself sane. After all, Maron had lost all thought, reason, and humanity. She simply couldn't be called sane anymore.

The angel took a seat on her friend's lap and started, "Someone will come for us one day. Who do you think they'll be?"

Maron didn't answer; Fin hadn't expected her to. She highly doubted the brunette could understand her right now.

The Jun-Tenshi opened her mouth to say something else, but stopped. What was the point of this? Maron was likely going to stay drugged up forever. Her life was practically over. She might as well be considered dead. It was a harsh thought to think, but it was true. Maron hadn't moved since three days ago, when she accidentally fell over. She was more of a container for the drug than a human being. Her mind? Gone; lost it a long time ago. Her voice? Gone; faded away a long time ago. Her personality? Gone; cracked a long time ago. This girl who Fin still considered a friend was nothing more than the empty shell of the girl she once knew.

Maron was lucky angels were loyal by nature. If not, Fin would have left weeks ago. That little faithful angel had stayed by her side, but if anyone were to ask her why, she wouldn't be able to answer. She honestly didn't know. And to further the shame, she had given up on Maron. The girl would die or live for sex. It was sickening. It was true. There was just no hope left for the brunette. Fin had stopped praying. She still talked, but that was more for herself than for Maron. It was a pitiful sight to look at; it was hard for the angel to think that this happened to so many girls.

A dragging sound pulled Fin out of her mournful thoughts. Another dead body was being pulled from the selection of girls. Why...? Why couldn't Maron play dead or something just so she could live...? Why did this have to happen to her? WHY?

On Maron's lap, the Jun-Tenshi pulled her knees up to her chest and let her head drop onto her knees. A familiar scream was heard some ways down the hall. It was a newcomer to the building. She'd only been here a total of four and a half days. Soon she would lose her voice. Soon she wouldn't remember what or who family was. Soon she, too, would become one of the many unlucky girls caught in this web of dark souls and mindlessness.

Fin knew Maron, as well as most of the other girls here, was ready to be sold. Thankfully, they wanted to make sure of that, so they kept drugging her. That bad part wasn't just that the drug was unhealthy, but that Maron was so very obviously on the verge of overdose. She wouldn't be able to take much more before she died.

The brunette mumbled something that Fin couldn't understand. It wasn't even language. Maron had just thrown some sounds together.

"I know, Maron. It's okay," the angel cooed, as if Maron could actually sense danger and apprehension. She looked at her friend's eyes. They were half-open. They were always half-open. They didn't shine anymore. The spark in her eyes that showed proudly her fiery spirit was gone. The brunette's eyes were nothing but dark pools of nothingness. They looked at nothing. They were always set in one direction; that direction was always forward. They showed no emotion whatsoever. They were lifeless.

Fin sighed and just as she did, she heard wings flapping. When she looked up there was no bird, as she first thought (birds sometimes managed to get into the building and the flapping of their wings could be heard as they tried to find their way out). No, it was no bird. It was Access. Kuro-Tenshi Access. Never before in her whole life had been happier to see a bad guy.

Immediately she flew up to him, feeling the urge to give him a hug and cry on his shoulders. She didn't; he was still bad and he might have come just to laugh.

"Access, you came," she said with as little emotion as possible.

"Yeah. It wasn't easy finding you. Are you okay? Did you get hurt? Who hurt you? You look terrible! There must've been some fight going on here-"

"Access, shut up! I'm not the one who's hurt, Maron is. If you just bothered to look at the situation first..." she berated.

Access looked down at the three nearest stalls below them. In one there was nobody, in the next there was a girl with brown hair, sweating an shaking. then in the last one, there was a girl with black hair with a man giving her a shot. She, too, was shaking and sweating. Neither of the girls he saw looked like Maron.

"Where is she?" he asked. "And what is this place?"

As the curtain opened to answer his question, he moved aside. A man dressed in black (almost all of them were dressed in black) came through, unable to see the angels, with a needle in his hands.

Access frowned. He'd never heard of human trafficking; he had no idea what they were doing to the brunette.

"Is this a hospital?" he asked.

The man couldn't hear the angels as they spoke. He simply went about his business and when he was done, he left wordlessly.

"It's not a hospital. They aren't helping her," Fin said, her voice shaky as if afraid to admit to herself what was going on.

"Then why did that guy have a needle? Er, nevermind. First we have to find Maron-" he said.

Fin shook her head and took a deep breath. "You're looking at her."

Access looked down again. Surely this wasn't Maron. Surely this wasn't Jeanne. Maron was strong, willful, confident. And pretty darn sassy. This girl wasn't any of those. She just sat there, eyes unmoving, brain probably not thinking, she wasn't trying to escape in any shape or form. Maron would've died before she would let anyone take her to wherever this was. Even if they _did_ manage to catch her, she would be plotting an escape route or snapping at the men in this place. It couldn't possibly be Maron. Maron was Jeanne, and Jeanne was a true escape artist.

"Access, you have to help her..." The Jun-Tenshi's voice cracked and she started to cry. Access couldn't blame her for shedding tears. He knew how dearly she held Maron.

"Are you sure this is really her?" he asked softly, halfway wanting confirmation.

Fin nodded, sniffled a bit and said, "Yeah. Some men broke into her bedroom and knocked her out. Then they took her away and I followed. We both ended up here."

"Well, according to what we found out, you two ended up in Cambodia. It only took us about a day to get here, but it took a pretty long time to figure out where you were," he told her.

"Us?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

He grinned smugly. "You really thought I came alone? I thought Maron might've been out looking for you, and might've gotten hurt or captured somewhere along the way. So to settle the score, I brought Sinbad with me. Not only that, but outside this building the entire Jeanne Special Task Force is waiting to ambush on Sinbad's signal."

Fin smiled gratefully at him. He may have been one of the bad guys, but he sure came prepared. "I don't know how you got them to cooperate with Sinbad, but thank you, Access."

He felt his cheeks grow hot and quickly murmured, "It's nothing."

**A/N**

**Whether you believe it or not, THIS is what human trafficking is. Young teenage girls are drugged up and auctioned off to the highest bidder. There are many people unaware of this, and that's why I created this story.**


	3. Chapter 3

-Chapter 3-

Before giving Access the okay to go on and storm the building, Fin fluttered down to Maron's lap. She looked deeply into the brunette's darkened, soulless eyes and smiled for the first time in...well, she really didn't remember the last time she'd smiled like this. Her smile had to be the happiest on the planet.

"I told you," Fin whispered. "We're going to be okay. Hang on just a little longer."

She gave Access a look that told him to tell Sinbad to give the signal.

The Kuro-Tenshi quickly got the point and rushed to get out of the building. Fin watched him leave, wondering if Maron would even live long enough to catch a glimpse of her freedom. She'd already endured so much, and even though she wouldn't know what was going on, Fin wanted her to die happy if she had to die here.

She heard a body drop in the stall right next to Maron's. It signaled one of two things; either a girl had died just before she would be saved, or a girl had tried to stand up and failed. It made Fin all the more anxious for her friend's safety. By now, the drug was probably embedded in her DNA. Not literally, of course, but she must have so much of that stuff in her by now that she could drop dead at any given moment. It had been hard, watching her go through this. It had been hard trying to support her when she couldn't respond or even understand. It had been hard urging her to fight the drug, even more so since there was no way she could've won. It had been hard seeing them inject her with needle after needle. It had been hard seeing her go from bad to worse to worst. It had been hard knowing there was nothing she could do to help Maron. But now that was all about to end. Access was probably giving Sinbad his instructions right now.

A loud BAM was soon heard, ringing and echoing throughout the halls.

"GO!" someone shouted. Fin was unable to tell whether it was one of the good guys or one of the bad guys. "GET THE GIRLS!" It might be a bad guy, one of the men dressed in black. They might be trying to tell the others to save their stock. It wouldn't be that hard to believe. They made millions, billions maybe, of dollars from selling the girls.

Soon their was a ton of clamor, and one of the girls who hadn't been drugged as much was somehow thrown into Maron's stall. She pulled herself up and ran out, not giving a second glance to Maron. Fin didn't blame her, nor was she mad at her. That poor girl, just like all the others, wanted to get out of this evil place. She didn't want to waste even a second looking at some girl who was so drugged up she wasn't likely to survive. And it was true; even with medical care, Maron might not make it.

Guns were heard a little ways down the hall, and Fin peeked out to see what was happening. Police officers were everywhere, some carrying half-dead girls in their arms. Others carried lifeless corpses. Still others were helping some of the newer girls, the ones that could still walk, out of the building. The ones that weren't helping the girls were keeping a lookout for any of the men who brought them here. Those cops had their guns raised, finger on the trigger, ready to shoot someone on a second's notice. Some officers were cuffing a few of the men who hadn't gotten away in time. And then there were even more cops; they were putting the girls on stretchers and loading them in who-knows-how-many ambulances. The medical teams were rushing to assist the living girls, hooking them up to a ton of equipment and injecting a clear-ish solution into them.

The injections worried Fin. Maron, as well as most others, was so drugged up that whatever they were injecting might do more harm than good. She reminded herself that these people had most likely dealt with drug addicts before; they had more medical experience than her and they were trying their best to help the girls.

The Jun-Tenshi waited for what seemed like an eternity before Access and Sinbad entered Maron's stall. As soon as he recognized the girl as Maron Kusakabe, Sinbad's heart sank and his gut twisted into a tight knot. He rushed up to her and held her face up, trying to confirm that she was still among the living. He looked slightly relieved when he felt her heartbeat, but her eyes... They didn't look at him; they didn't look at anything. They were glazed over and had dark rings around them. He hadn't yet seen a girl who was this unresponsive. The others he had helped and had seen being helped at least looked at their rescuers.

He patted her cheek, hoping she would give some kind of indication that she felt it. She didn't move; she didn't even blink. He felt tears brimming, threatening to spill. A dead body carried by two officers passed by. Sinbad let go of Maron's head. It dropped back down. Her sweaty locks of hair fell back over her face, shrouding it from the outside world. The meager force of her head dropping to hang down was enough to make her fall forward. She fell down, off the bench. It startled Sinbad, but he quickly gathered his bearings and rolled her over, scooping her gently up in his arms and running out of the stall with Fin and Access close behind him. The angels flew higher above the ground than normal so they wouldn't get in the way of the officers running back and forth with both dead and alive girls.

Sinbad didn't have to worry about avoiding anyone. The officers moved over once they saw the condition of the girl he was carrying. He quickly made it to an ambulance.

One of the medical team members ran up to him, taking Maron from him and nodding to him, as if telling him he was free to go back inside and free another girl. Sinbad nodded back and reluctantly pushed through the crowd of officers to get back into the building.

Fin entered the ambulance right before they closed the doors. There was on other girl, also limp, to Maron's right. The medical team quickly stuck and IV in her and proceeded to immediately inject the clear-ish stuff into her arm.

"She's been drugged at least forty-two times," one of them said as he counted the needle marks on the brunette's arm.

"I don't think she'll make it to the hospital," the driver said as he sat in the driver's seat. "Should we try anyway?"

"Yeah. She looks stable enough for now," a third person chimed. "She still has a chance."

An oxygen mask was placed over Maron's mouth and nose. They secured it by strapping the elastic band around her head. They then put eye-drops in her eyes to keep them from drying out; they closed her eyes afterward. As they tended to her, for some reason sedating her along with the treatment, Fin noticed just how much it looked like she was sleeping. It was actually unclear whether she was asleep, or awake but unable to move because of the drug.

* * *

><p>It was much quieter once they got her situated in the hospital. According the the specialist, she wouldn't make it if they tried to take her back to Japan. For now she had to stay at a Cambodian hospital. The specialist said it would take too long to reach Japan, even if taken by plane, and that she would die within the journey's time frame.<p>

Other girls were much luckier. They were able to be loaded onto the plane without worrying that they were going to die on it.

Sinbad stayed in Maron's room, for a reason Fin couldn't figure out. She allowed his presence only because he helped Maron. It was too early to say he saved her life; there was still the chance that her heart could simply give out from drug overdose. Actually, it had already been proven in blood tests that she had, in fact, been overdosed. Not too much for her to die right away, thank goodness, but it was still too much for her body to handle alone. Sinbad and the Jeanne Special Task Force (this included Miyako and her father) had been informed that it could take awhile, maybe two or three days tops, to remove half of the drug, at which point she would snap out of her trance and start to look around. However, she wouldn't be able to understand what anyone was saying, so if they talked to her, they shouldn't expect a response. But at least Fin could finally expect eye contact.

* * *

><p>Maron made a pretty fast recovery. Instead of two to three days, she began to look around at one day. It was remarkable said the doctors. It was amazing said the doctors. They thought she wouldn't live. Sinbad had brought her in at just the right time. An hour longer and she would almost certainly have died (that was just how bad her condition was).<p>

Fin was there when she first opened her eyes. It looked like she was inspecting her environment. Her eyes were still dark, and they were just as wide and dilated as they were when she was on the drug. Fin wasn't worried too much about anymore. The drug was still being removed from her body, meaning that there was still remnants of the drug _in_ her body. Apparently there were alot, because at one point they had been informed that the overdose was great on her, and had stressed her body to such a point where it was ready to give up. She, although Fin hadn't noticed since she was with her all the time, hadn't been sweating out as much of the drug as she should have been. She'd probably started out that way, but because the drug was constantly being reintroduced to her, her systems had started to fail and she began to sweat less and less. It was just one of the major complications caused by her stay at that dingy building.

One of the doctors came in (Fin moved aside so as not to get in his way) and checked her monitors. Heart rate was good, respiratory was good, brain function was as normal as it could be with a body filled to the brim with drugs. As she left, Maron looked at him, almost as if she was saying a good-bye.

"Oh, you're a fighter. I'll give you that much," he murmured to the brunette on his way out.

Delighted about her friend's positive reaction to the treatment, Fin hovered above Maron's head and grinned broadly. she was going to be okay. No doubt now. For her to start responding this fast to the medicine? There was just no way she was going to give in now.

"How is she?" Access asked, alighting gently on Sinbad's shoulder (Sinbad was asleep at the time).

"She's doing really good. She's even looking around now!" the Jun-Tenshi squealed.

* * *

><p>It took a few days later for the other girls to start sitting up and trying to communicate. It took Maron a little longer to do this, but at last she made it to that step, that huge milestone in her recovery that guaranteed her survival, and she attempted to understand Fin's words. She tried to understand, and she tried to talk back to her friend.<p>

It was a moment of pure joy for Fin, Sinbad, and even Access. They had been getting a little worried when the brunette had stopped getting better (at least that was how it seemed). Now it was over, and now Maron was safe. Her eyes were less dilated now. She could control her body to a certain point and for a certain period of time. She could make sounds, remember phrases, and she could use them to try to communicate with people in the room. She wasn't there just yet, granted, but she was making progress. Unfortunately it was clear that she had yet to understand what they were saying, even if they simply repeated what she said. This proved that she didn't know what she was saying yet. The doctors assured the group that it would be fine and that it would take some time to repair the damage done by the drugs. Especially since those particular drugs affected the brain more than anything else.

"Hey, Maron," Sinbad greeted as he reentered the room with food for both himself and the hungry angels. He had to hand it to those two, they hadn't left her side (except Access's few disappearances for exercise, stretches, and fresh air) since she first arrived here. Well, Fin hadn't left her side since she was relocated from Japan to Cambodia.

Maron's dark eyes followed him as he walked by to sit in a chair. The angels didn't need chairs; they had his shoulders. And frankly, they felt like two little birds, parakeets or canaries or something of the sort, perching on him. Not that he would tell them that, of course. He really didn't mind them sleeping, standing, or sitting on him. It wasn't bothersome. Not to mention that he was used to it with Access living in his apartment anyway.

He opened a box of chicken-fried rice and poured some soy sauce (they came in a little restaurant packet for free at the drive-through Chinese place) on it. He grabbed a plastic fork and pulled out one of the smaller pieces of chicken, handing it to Fin. She gratefully took it and waited a little bit for it to cool down before eating it. Sinbad took out another piece of chicken and gave this one to Access. He didn't wait for it to cool down and ended up with a burnt tongue. The crazy Kuro-Tenshi kept eating it despite the pain. In his mind, he was hungry, and nothing was going to stand between him and his stomach.

He felt guilty for not giving Maron some, but the way she was now, she still couldn't eat. She had to stay hooked up to several IVs, some that helped distribute nutrients into her system. She would be hungry as heck once she could control her body again, but for now she was getting the important stuff. Not that it helped the guilty feeling when she was watching him eat.

* * *

><p>A few more days later, and Maron could comprehend at least half of what they were saying. Her eyes were even less dilated than before, to the point where one could see her eye color now. That lovely brown iris had never looked so precious to Fin before. It seemed a long wait for recovery, and a long road to it, but they had been told that it was taking so long only because she had been there (and lived there) longer than most of the other girls, and therefore had been on a higher overdose than most of the others.<p>

The doctors said she was very lucky. They told them that at least five of the girls had died here, two of them had died on the way here, and at least nine of them were on life support (three were only days away from having the plug pulled). All of them (as in, the ones just listed) had been in that place somewhere around the same amount of time Maron had been there. They were also told that it was first thought that Maron would need to be put on life support as well, but as they saw her recovery rate, they decided to leave her alone aside from the necessary medical fields.

Again, she was very lucky.

**A/N**

**Not the best place to stop it, but I didn't want it to be too long. Anyways, just know that I'm pushing it with having Maron live. Most girls who end up in those places either don't live or get auctioned off. Also, my reviewer (thank you, by the way, for reviewing and you know exactly who you are) mentioned the movie Taken. They were right. Taken inspired this story (inspired, not based off of) because it deals so much with human trafficking. I got so angry and passionate when I watched. I'm going to spread this awareness to other fandoms, not just of anime but of cartoons too. Maybe even books and TV shows. Point is, did you know EXACTLY what human trafficking was before you read this? Before you saw Taken (if you've seen it)? I can tell you that I've known OF human trafficking, but never truly understood how it worked until I saw the movie. **

**I'm not asking you to watch the movie, but please spread the word about trafficking. Hopefully it will save lives one day by helping girls to better understand it.**


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